. >> that was transportation secretary ray lahood friday warning how the looming mandatory cuts could affect american people. the impact of sequestration could reach beyond to employees directly affected. let's bring in gene marks. he writes for small business for "the new york times" and forbes upon. thanks so much for being on. >> thanks so much. >> we heard of secretary ray lahood talk about air travel if the cuts are imposed. you could that trickle down to the economy? >> when you talk about small businesses and how they'll be impacted by the sequester cuts you have to kind of take into consideration that there are 20 to 30 million small businesses. so people that are doing work in certain areas, certain regions or certain industries that might be affected by a government cutback, those people will be affected, but if you're a small business owner and the accountant and the lawyer, even, a lot of them aren't going to be seeing a whole lot of effect of any cuts coming out. >> let's take a look at what the white house had to say about that. they say, quote, the automatic cuts trigge